Panthers' Kuba And Kulikov Keep It Clean

Florida Panthers defenseman Filip Kuba made his debut for Vitkovice Steel during a 1-0 road win against Slavia Praha in Wednesday action from the Czech Extraliga. Paired with St. Louis Blues defenseman Roman Polak, Kuba had a strong game on the back end, finishing with an even rating. Polak scored the only goal of the game in the opening period with the sole assist going to Viktor Ujcik at the 10:54 mark. It was his first goal of the campaign and came with Steel on a power play. Filip Sindelar, in just his second appearance of the season, posted the shutout for Vitkovice while Dominik Furch took the loss for Slavia Praha. The win snapped a four game losing streak for Vitkovice and moved them into a tenth place tie with HC Mountfield in the Extraliga standings.

Dmitry Kulikov (pictured above in Panther garb) logged 16:58 minutes of ice time, had one shot on goal and finished with a +1 rating during Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s 4-0 win over Slovan Bratislava in Wednesday action from the KHL. Kulikov was again paired with former Winnipeg Jets defenseman Mark Flood. The win was the sixth in a row for Lokomotiv who pulled within three points of Western Conference leading Dynamo Moscow. Maxim Trunyov opened the scoring for Lokomotiv at the 6:16 mark of the first period with the only assist going to Roman Lyuduchin. In the second period, Alexei Kalyuzhny scored off a feed from former Panther Viktor Kozlov to extend the lead to 2-0. Goals coming exactly one minute apart in the middle of third period put the game away as Columbus Blue Jacket center Artem Anisimov and Roman Lyuduchin tallied at even strength for the home team. Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves to post his second shutout of the season.